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Saturday, May 31, 2014

A few weeks ago a local gamer was selling off some extra German tanks. Always on the lookout for a good deal this on caught my eye. There were about 20 tanks, mostly Panzer IV variants. I made an offer sight unseen.

I thought I was kind of low-balling but it turns out I might have over paid. I have never been afraid of an army restoration project and have done lots of 40K stuff that was severely used. This was going to be a massive project.

Here are three of seven PzIV F1, F2 and G that were in the lot. Most had very heavy paint with the looks of 2-3 repaints. Many had damage that needed repairing. All were very poorly assembled. The tank in the middle is featured in the pictures below.

This Panzer IV G was the worst of the lot. This picture shows the hull after 6-8 hours of soaking in Simple Green. The top layer of tan came off very easy but the other 5 layers of paint took a bit longer. EDIT: The more I look at this picture the more it looks like it was pulled from a Russian bog after 60 years.

A few more hours of soaking and a hour of scraping with dental picks give you something like this.

Not all the tanks were in bad shape and some cleaned up rather easy. Here is a good one with less than an hour of work compared the worst after about the same amount of time.

Here are 6 of the 7 tanks after all the paint stripped off. The worst one is in the upper left of the picture.

This is the worst of the lot after paint stripping and reassembly. All the tanks got a fresh coat of Panzer Grey.

In the end I managed to salvage 7 Panzer IV. These took about 10 hours of work, not including the soak time. These are ready for the next step to getting back to the table. There are still about 13 mort tanks to restore in this lot so stay tuned for more.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

I just finished up a few odds and ends for my FoW Fallschirmjagers. I have had these in process for more than a year but I just could not get them done. I recently has the FJ back on the table and my love for this army was rekindled.

First up are a few extra command stands. These will be used in various army configs where I need a command team for a small unit.

Next are three sniper teams. I have never used snipers and I have never faced them but I am really intrigued by them. I can;t wait to try them out as I know my regular opponents have very little experience as well.

This is the first of two character teams I painted up. This one will be used as Major Von Der Heydte and also as an Infantry Ace if we ever do an aces campaign.

Finally we have another character team. This one is Oberstleutnant Walter Koch. The only time I have ever used a special character warrior team in Flames of War was at this year's Shifting Sands event. My lack of experience meant that I did not get the full potential from the character. I am looking forward to trying out both of these characters to see how they really work in the game.

Saturday, May 3, 2014

So far this year has been pretty sad for me and getting regular updates on the blog. This is mainly due to not painting as much stuff as normal. Or maybe I should say that I am not completing as much as I have in the past.

This has actually been a pretty good year, so far, for playing games. I have gotten in quite a few Flames of War games as well as Bolt Action games. I have even managed to get in a Black Powder game.

I have been working on a few projects and I should have lots more updates soon - good ones, not just lame excuses. Coming soon are some more FoW Fallschirmjagers. I am nearing completion on some extra command stands as well as some snipers. We are trying to gather forces for a Market Garden campaign later this summer and my FJ should get lots of table time for this. I also have pioneers, heavy mortars and heavy artillery to add to this army.

I acquired a collection of used German tanks for Flames of War from a local gamer. At first it seemed like it might be a pretty fair deal but having spent some time with the tanks it is looking lots like a charity deal. Oh well, I really like salvage projects and this one is definitely salvage. I plan to use most of these tanks for a late 42 - early 43 11th Panzer Division project. This will be focused on the Chir River battles. It should be pretty fun as this will be my first winter force. I am planning several posts for the restoration of these tanks and building of the army.

My Kampfgruppe Hummel project will be continuing as well. This army should see time in the Market Garden games so I need to get this done. I need a few more Tigers and then a couple of Pz IV and Pz III to finish it up.

For Bolt Action I finally decided to build the Perry British 8th Army and have started the assembly and collection of forces. I have nearly finished assembling the first box of troops and I have a British Mk VIc tank that I got for Warlord during their big tanks sale. I need to add more support and troops. This should see some progress as the summer progresses.

I need to get my Napoleonic French project back on track as well. I did manage to assemble all the Victrix models I have collected and started painting but then it got back-burnered. We are still hoping to get a BP game in for the 1813 campaign this Fall so time is a wasting. I still need to acquire some more models for this.

There are lots of cool plastic releases in the pipeline that have me really excited. Plastic Soldier Company has KV-1 and late PZ III sets coming soon and there new IS-2 box is really cool. This is just the type of stuff that will get me inspired.

Then there are the games that have been retired. Not all of these are bad. In fact some are really great. The reasons for retirement are varied.

Wings of Glory

Kings of War

The Great WarEmpire of the DeadClash of EmpiresLord of the Rings:SBGWarhammer Ancient BattlesBattleground World War 2Arc of FireJohnny Reb IIICrossfireRules of EngagementRate of FireLegends of the High SeasNecromundaWaterlooLegends of the Old West